Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Purge: reject the premise, reject the movie

"I don't buy it."

Those are four words no writer likes to hear, and yet they are a fairly common reaction after reading a spec.  I've read plenty of scripts where one of the most significant reasons I decline to pass it on is that I simply cannot accept the conceit of the story.  This is significant because I believe most readers do enter a story with a willingness to accept much of it on its own terms.  An audience is usually willing to accept the reality with which they are presented.

What usually threatens to pop that suspension of disbelief is when the characters or the premise act counter to human nature.  This is particularly dangerous when the setting is recognizable and familiar to the audience.  They know human nature and they have a pretty good idea what a normal person would do in a situation that feels like their daily life.

But if you have a seemingly normal person in a setting that's almost normal except for one MAJOR difference - then that puts you in an "uncanny valley." The audience might perceive phoniness in the conceit and that often leads to an outright rejection of it.

And that is why I'm not likely to see the upcoming release The Purge.  Watch the trailer.


I admit it's a trifle unfair to judge a film by its marketing components.  But then again, this is the material that's designed to get me to plunk down my $14.  As I watch that trailer, all I can think is "I don't buy it."  And this is coming from someone who's a sucker for contained thrillers.

The hurdle for me is that I can't wrap my brain around a society that would say, "Hey, for one night a year, anything goes! Murder, rape, robbery... and then come sun-up, we're all cool with it."  I reject the idea that a functional society would even attempt such a thing.

And then, to put forth the notion that somehow this one night of blood lust apparently gets all of this out of everyone's systems so much that the rest of the year is a utopia?  It's hard to imagine human nature working that way.  So I don't buy that people would be on board for this, and even if I did, I don't buy that it would work.  (Interestingly, I had the exact same issue with a pilot this season that failed to get a series order - perhaps for that very reason.)

But let me point out a counter-example that I did accept.  The Hunger Games is based on the premise that once a year - 12 districts each offer up two children to compete in a battle royale to the death.  This competition is treated with all the pomp and circumstance of a Super Bowl.

On its face that seems just as absurd as the things I attacked The Purge for. So what's the difference?  The world presented in The Hunger Games does not look like our own.  The Purge seems to be set in modern suburbia (despite the note that it's about a decade in the future.)  All of society is completely upended in Hunger Games, to the point where the United States doesn't exist anymore.  The cultural and visual distinctions are enough to give the viewer the emotional distance so they're not constantly thinking "this would never happen."

If any of you DO end up seeing The Purge, let me know if the movie makes the idea more palpable than the trailer does.

30 comments:

  1. Great post, Zuul! Nailed it. Haven't seen The Purge. Don't intend to... For exactly the reason you cite.

    Also, great juxtaposition with the Hunger Games to explore the fundamental flaw. Very insightful.

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  2. I saw the Purge a couple days ago. The premise isn't so bad, but it's the events that take place that will make you glad you didn't spend $14. Nevertheless, if you're into home invasion movies, then it's worth a matinee.

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  3. I suspect it will actually do modestly well. I understand your points, but it's still suspension of disbelief even within our much more familiar world. I'll give it a go, though deliberately contained stuff somewhat annoys me because I know somewhere up the chain someone's said "how can we make this film for less money"? But I like Hawke and Heady.

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  4. The "Prometheus" trailer this is not. This movie looks like a missfire. Pass on the Purge.

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    1. Why don't you want to make the fantasy novel that you'll finish one day on vacation with a girl into a THREE-part movie?

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  5. If I see this film before it's released on DVD or Netflix, it will be if I break down to see it at the dollar theater. And then only if I have nothing better to do. However, I won't be surprised if it does decent business, as it likely has a cathartic effect similar to Falling Down. In other words, a functional society may not allow it, but it's an outlet for those who might fantasize about or even secretly wish for a real-life version of this scenario.

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  6. I rolled my eyes at the premise when I thought the reasoning behind an annual Purge was simply to rid society of a primal need for depraved debauchery. However, I just watched a short clip from the writer, who says the movie sets-up a broke America who had to sell out to a massive corporation. That's not too much of a stretch for me, weirdly enough.
    The Purge doubles as a way to rid society of those who aren't 'contributing to society' by allowing those who can't afford to keep themselves safe and those sick enough to act on such a law to kill each other off resulting in a more pure existence for the rest of them.
    I'll see it. But maybe at Goldclass so I can purge the disbelief with mohjitos if necessary... or nap.

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  7. You get your one night off, but the rest of the year is Utopia because Landru says so (in an Original Series Star Trek episode):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Archons

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  8. Not to be an ass, but doesn't this post run directly counter to the post explaining your irritation with prejudging movies?

    I saw this trailer a few times on television and instead of thinking of everything that would probably be wrong with it, I actually said: "that's an absurdly impossible event that would never ever happen in real life, but it would be cool to see someone's take on it for fantasy's sake."

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    1. Not directly counter to my earlier post, no. This post merely expresses disbelief with the overall premise of the film as stated in the ads.

      To be the sort of prejudging I was railing against, I wouldn't be stopping with "I don't buy the concept." I'd have to say that "It's a Jason Blum movie, so of course it's gonna suck! And Ethan Hawke can't act his way out of a wet paper bag! And the plot is full of holes."

      That and I'd be arguing aggressively with people who did see it and tried to defend it. You'll notice that one of my last statements was to ask if the film made the premise any more plausible than the ads did.

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  9. My question: what would help sell it? World-building scenes? A pre-credit premise card (like Escape From New York) or is this premise just dead in the water for you?
    I remember having the same problem with "In Time". I just never bought the world.

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    1. Definitely would need to be some world-building. Pre-credit premise card probably wouldn't be enough to do the job - especially if their world looks like ours. There need to be enough future trappings that it doesn't feel like a short evolutionary step from our world to theirs.

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  11. I partly disagree.

    It's true that on the face of it, a yearly one-night free-for-all that everybody forgets the next day isn't really credible intellectually. But what really counts in my opinion is the credibility of the actual human situations shown, not the general setting taken as an experiment of the intellect.

    And the trailer's basic situation is about:

    1) what would humans do when a threatened human being knocks on their door
    2) would those humans protect him at the risk of their lives

    The more general setting isn't really important in the trailer, so I think the basic situation works on a human level.

    Whether the rest of the movie really leans on the general setting or not (and hence, on its human credibility) remains to be seen, though.

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  12. It isn't the premise that will keep me from seeing The Purge - it's the "character does something incredibly stupid in order to set up the situation" event. We're locked in; we're safe; whatever you do, don't let anyone in... And guess what?

    Sigh

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  13. Shortfilm audiences seem to love movies with unbelieveable premises. It seems you can't just translate this into the feature film world ...

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  15. i'm on the other side with this. it's so hard to break in now, the competition is so fierce and the talent level is getting better and better as more and more people try their hand in it. While this also creates a massive chasm between the have and have nots, the 'idea' now is so important.

    This idea worked. It may not work on the screen, or in all peoples minds, but it obviously worked. This is such a clean and tight pitch that can be summed up in moments. People can see the idea in an instant. It touches the very core of humanity by showing how far we are willing to go.

    So, for me, the conceit is what greenlit it -- and when 9-10 writers are spitting out the same shit, this sparked something in people enough. it makes you ask questions. i haven't seen the movie, but i read the script, i liked the script.

    Rustin

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  16. The Purge could very well be a bust and though it may not fit human nature in today's terms, I encourage stories that are set between now and the post-apocalyptic era. I've grown weary of people foraging for canned goods. The best contained film of all time in this writer's opinion was The Haunting in 1963.

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  17. *spoiler* After reading about this movie and watching the review, I think it has more flaws than stated here. In addition to the fact that it asks people to suspend reality for the night without laws - there actually are laws, you can't kill upper level people during the purge or use certain weapons, they fall into the cliché of having white mid to upper class people behaving as animals or ignoring the members of their class behaving like animals, while a homeless black man saves the day. You have the child being right while the parents are wrong. And finally, you have a security system that has presumably kept out dangerous people during past purges but for whatever reason does not keep them out tonight. These are only the major issues because they are also asking the audience to accept that these beautiful homes are not vandalized on this night and that the people acting out violent their violent desires are only from the privileged class.
    I suppose it might do well as a slasher/horror for people only looking to see people killed in bloody and new ways without plot. I personally will not pay to see it since I do not want the film industry to think people in general like it and want more of it.

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  18. For a better "home invasion" film that's creepy and suspenseful, try "The Strangers", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482606/

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  19. Yeah, I had the same reaction to the idea, just don't buy it... and I like Hawke and contained thrillers and all that... but it seems too contrived and, as a result, too predictable...

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  20. It's basically a science fiction film. You do understand that anthropology and sociology are sciences too, right? It looks like today's world, but so did Terminator. Can we honestly accept sci-fi in this era if it has to do with a time-traveling robot, but not a devised social experiment? That's kind of odd.

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    1. I understand where you're coming from, but I think what serves as a huge distinction between your argument and the original post's is the factor of making it believable. Sure, a time-traveling robot seems farfetched in our universe, but in the process of creating such a world, the idea also implements rules and structures for the Terminator to exist and follow.

      Granted, The Purge also tries to do this, but there are too many reasons why it doesn't stand strong even within this fictional society. The film is set in what appears to be a completely normal (and real) society in modern times, with one differing element that completely throws it off balance. If we exist in such a similar society, would we be capable of such laws?

      Judging from the characters' sense of familiarity with the protocol, you would presume that it appears as though our society has progressed down a dark path. But there would be progression nonetheless. And that means a progression through time. If this "purge" occurred in a time far beyond the present, and the society reflects such changes, then maybe it would be less difficult to accept.

      Sorry; that was an earful! Or an eyeful.

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  21. I most certainly agree with you regarding the film's outrageously peculiar stir into this seemingly normal, "functioning" society. You hit the nail right on the head having said that the premise somehow falls into an "uncanny valley". Thematically, the film's been done before. But this execution pops out.

    Unfortunately, I don't buy it either. And gauging their marketing and promotional methods, I feel like there's a huge chunk of detail that I'm missing from the trailer and ads from other platforms.

    Reading through the comments, I can safely gather some plot holes with this concept. Who kept pushing this past the big boys?

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  22. I read a script with an almost identical concept, over at zoetrope, last year. The only difference was that the feral night was supernatural in origin, and that only select people and places were targetted. Otherwise, this amateur script had very similar schtick and, from what I've heard, very similar execution of said schtick (as a contained thriller).

    And I think it would have been a better movie, done with the supernatural approach outlined above, than the societal/"satire" approach of THE PURGE.

    THE PURGE may be doing well commercially, for the reasons Mr. Niles perceptively outlined above, but I don't intend to see it, and I don't think (barring some sort of BLAIR WATCH/ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY word-of-mouth), that it's going to have enough legs to be a major money-maker. But I've been wrong before, so take that for what it's worth.

    As Bitter either said or strongly implied, Any society that could only find stability by allowing humans to run amok one night a year is a society that would end up having humans run amok 365 nights a year, because that's the nature of the beast -- both human and societal.

    What would have been much more interesting would have been a PURPOSEFUL PURGE such as was done in the USSR in the '30s: a kind of grandiose witch-hunt where the enemies of a certain kind of people (you select the oppressor type) get their "just desserts." THAT I would pay to see... satirized, I mean. What? Do you think I'm a monster...? (Rhetorical question, not to be answered).

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  23. BLAIR WATCH??? I meant, WITCH.

    My kingdom for an edit button....

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  24. 36.4 million in box office and counting...

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  25. While there were moments when I thought "Wouldn't they do this? Wouldn't this happen? etc." The Purge was an engaging thrill ride...loved it.

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